To the 1976 election

Reservation to criticize publicly the Italian Communists was discernible in the attitude of Washington's three main allies, Germany, France and Britain. On 7, 8 and 12 April the US ambassador in Rome met with his French, German and British counterparts. All of them assured Volpe that their governments shared American concerns and that they were opposed to PCI's entry to government. They were not inclined however to express their concerns publicly. Moreover, although they thought that the key to improve the electoral prospects from the Western point of view was the revitalization of Christian Democracy, they were not very optimistic on this. There were also particular points raised by the allied ambassadors that were of interest. The French ambassador praised the sophistication of the PCI leadership and did not believe that the Communists, once in government, would withdraw Italy from NATO, not even its military wing, as the French had done. The German ambassador justified Bonn's guarded public utterances reminding of the surviving memory of World War II in Italy. He thought nevertheless that the Chancellor's statement in the Bundestag against the desirability of cooperation with PCI was useful in countering Brandt's support for a dialogue between Socialists and Communists. He had not had high regard for PCI's pool of human potential and thought that once the party was in government it would confront problems in recruiting people competent for public service.